....I have inspected every single tooth ,on every gear, No breakage . The strike side ,for some reason had a spring wire wrapped on the lift for the strike regulator? That was all rusted out so I replaced it--Never saw a wood works with a spring wire but that solved the problem and the strike side works perfectly
The 'helper spring' may have been added to compensate for some other issue that was causing strike stop problems. If everything else was perfect the helper spring would not be required but for now that part is working
..The main escapement? brass gear appears not to have play in it-doesn't wobble up and down consistently even when rotating. And the wooden pulleys for the weight lines seem to be free and the center holes do not appear to be egg shaped or worn....The holes in the verge tabs<? appear to not worn badly either.
That's good to know. A loose pivot hole for the escape wheel (the 'brass gear') can cause escapement issues and is usually worn unless someone has bushed it. If it has ben bushed there may be a problem with the bushing being properly centered over the original hole.
Problem I am having is that no matter how well I adjust the crutch and get it in beat it runs and has a good even beat but after a few minutes --stops?? All of the bushed ares appear to be o.k... I am not a wood works person-I have been maintaining brass movements for quite some time with very few problems. How do you clean the bushings on a wooden movement? I am assuming I need to take the movement apart to do so? and it appears that there is no way to adjust the verge post closer or further from the gear as in a brass movement?....
First of all wooden movements like this operate just like their brass counterparts and can be plagued by the same issues. The verge can be adjusted but I would check other issues first. It should only be adjusted if you know that is the problem and not as a trial and error exercise. The round brass 'button' that holds the verge anchor pin has two small nails set into two notches in the edge of the button. The adjustment is made by removing the nails and rotating the button to raise or lower the verge. Then the nails are replaced in the new location. Easy, yes? Well not usually so easy. First it is difficult to extract the nails without damaging the surrounding wood, then with the nails out one usually finds that the brass button is badly corroded into the hole and won't turn. One means of removing the button is to carefully drill a hole on the back side of the plate under the center of the button. Using a punch one can then loosen the button and perhaps begin easing the nails out enough to get a grip on them. If the nails went all the way through the wooden plate then sometimes they can be punched out a little from the back side of the plate. Now it only takes a tiny adjustment to make a big difference, but putting the nails back in the same holes will force the button back to the original position. So with the nails and the button removed, the nail holes must be plugged and new holes made after the adjustment is complete. Best to drill a pilot hole before nailing. So don't mess with this until you know an adjustment is needed and use care to get it exactly right.
How do you clean the bushings on a wooden movement?
We need to know what kind of bushings your movement has - wood, brass, bone, ivory, or something else - . Yes, the movement has to come apart to do this but these are easy to take apart. Support the movement
FACE DOWN on something like an empty tape spool after first removing the verge and the count wheel. Lift off the back plate. The hammer will stay with the back plate. Take pictures and notes first. Generally, pegging the pivot holes with a tooth pick should do the job. OK to dip the tooth pick in a little acetone.
Check the condition of all the pivots. They must be clean, bright, and straight the same as in a brass clock. The pivots are just soft wire that was likely pressed into a hole that was not very true. The pivot wire was then bent straight so as to run true. Sometimes these get bent, and sometimes they are found to have slipped and turned so they are no longer true, which can cause the problems you are seeing. If your clock does have bushings that are not original then they may be incorrectly centered. Finally, old wooden wheels shrink in one direction more than the other and are often out of round. A little out of round isn't usually a problem, but if someone centered a bushing at one extreme position then when the wheel is rotated to the other extreme there may be a depthing issue.
Best way forward is to disassemble and clean everything, check pivots for truth and smoothness etc. then put back each pair of wheels and make sure they run freely together, and finally the entire train. With the movement on it's back lift and drop each wheel to make sure it has end play and drops freely. Repeat with movement on its face.
When putting everything back
always place the parts on THE FRONT PLATE otherwise you will have a real fight getting the count lever in.
Now if you know for sure that the strike train is timed correctly now, then it is helpful to mark two teeth on the second wheel and one tooth on the third wheel pinion between AND two teeth on the third wheel and 1 tooth on the fourth pinion between and put it back the same way. Sync between the 2nd and 3rd wheels ensures that the hammer will not be partly raised when the strike stops, sync between the 3rd and 4th wheels ensures that the stop pin on the 4th wheel will be in the right place to be arrested when the strike count is finished.
-Are there any publications that anyone would recommend I purchase about maintaining /repairing/ and setting up wood movements? Any advice would be gratefully appreciated
Extreme Restoration by Tom Temple
http://www.xrestore.com/index.htm
RC
Here is a sequence of pictures showing verge pin removal and adjustment, and timing marks for assembly. A rubber band helps hole this wheel and pinion in mesh. The paint is a bit of model acrylic paint and can be easily removed or left in place.
